rberlin
New in Town
- Messages
- 2
- Location
- Berkshire County, Mass.
I come from a long line of hatmakers. My grandfather and granduncle started a leather sweatband business in NYC in the 1930's in a small factory in Greenwich Village. My uncle and his family were all hatmakers - fedoras, caps, you name it. After WWII, my father and uncle took over the sweatband business and ran it until a few years after my father's death in 1980. When I was growing up, I worked at the factory during the summer and during vacations, doing everything from packing to freight deliveries to going door to door to hat factories selling feathers for fedoras.
There's an old joke in the garment district:
What's the difference between a garment worker and a poet?
One generation.
First, I became a doctor. Then at mid-life and mid-career I became a poet. I've written a lot about my father, and the title poem of my first book of poetry is about how the demise of the hat industry in the 1960s affected his health. The title poem, "How JFK Killed My Father," is available on my website www.richardmberlin.com for anyone who is interested. Billy Collins, a recent Poet Laureate of the United States wrote a similar poem called "Death of the Hat" which he described as my poem's cousin.
I'd be interested in hearing from people who know about other poems related to hats.
Richard M. Berlin
There's an old joke in the garment district:
What's the difference between a garment worker and a poet?
One generation.
First, I became a doctor. Then at mid-life and mid-career I became a poet. I've written a lot about my father, and the title poem of my first book of poetry is about how the demise of the hat industry in the 1960s affected his health. The title poem, "How JFK Killed My Father," is available on my website www.richardmberlin.com for anyone who is interested. Billy Collins, a recent Poet Laureate of the United States wrote a similar poem called "Death of the Hat" which he described as my poem's cousin.
I'd be interested in hearing from people who know about other poems related to hats.
Richard M. Berlin
